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82 Hard Riddles

82 Hard Riddles

Riddle me this, Who doesn’t love riddles? We all love riddles, right?! That’s why you’re here. The wonderful thing about riddles is that the answer lies in truth (even though that truth is often hidden in the words and logic) and what can set you free? The truth. Riddles can be long or short, easy or hard, tricky or simple but one thing is for sure; riddles are addictive fun for the young and old alike.

Are you riddle-ready and ready to riddle?

For every Riddler there is a riddle and for every riddle, there is an answer, that’s why we love them. Brain teasing conundrums that confuse and discombobulate our brainboxes are utterly addictive and delicious and keep people coming back for more! This list of 82 hard riddles might test your riddling brainpower, but we think you have the skills to crack them. So without further ado, let’s get riddling!

82 of the Best and the Hardest Riddles [2024 Edition]

1. Food for thought

Riddle: You buy me to eat but you never eat me. What am I?

Answer: Plates and bowls.

2. Cut like a knife

Riddle: What can cut like a knife, sting like a bee, bite like a lion. Carry truth and lies but never move or speak. What are we?

Answer: Words.

3. Guess who

Riddle: Little Jimmy is Seven years old. I go everywhere with him. I cast no shadow and breathe no air. I don’t weigh anything and I can’t be seen, heard or touched. Who am I?

Answer: Little Jimmy’s imaginary friend.

4. Oh, Brother

Riddle: Derek, Darren and Dean all call Dennis their brother. Dennis is an only child. Who are we?

Answer: Derek, Darren, Dean and Dennis are all religious Monks.

5. Emotional moments

Riddle: I am present at the beginning of love, the start of life and I am the end of evil. What am I?

Answer: The letter ‘L’.

6. Simple words

Riddle: How many words are in a Dictionary?

Answer: Two. ‘A’ & ‘Dictionary’

7. Flying without wings

Riddle: What has wheels and flies?

Answer: A garbage bin with wheels.

8. No judgement

Riddle: I sit above you without judging you and can protect you and keep you warm. What am I?

Answer: A hat.

9. Healing and Killing

Riddle: I can heal and kill without touching you. What am I?

Answer: Time.

10. Day after Day

Riddle: When is the only time that today and tomorrow come before yesterday?

Answer: In a Dictionary.

11. Face up to it

Riddle: I have a face and hands but my hands can never touch my face. What am I?

Answer: A clock.

12. Head over heels

Riddle: What can bring tears to your eyes, make you move faster, make you move slower and knock you over?

Answer: The wind.

13. The riddle of Samuel

Riddle: Samuel’s father has three sons: David, Andrew and..?

Answer: Samuel.

14. Life is short

Riddle: I get shorter as I get older. What am I?

Answer: A candle.

15. Diamonds are forever

Riddle: What has fifteen diamonds but isn’t rich?

Answer: A deck of cards.

16. Rustling leaves

Riddle: What has leaves but no branches?

Answer: A book.

17. Smashing times

Riddle: How can you drop a glass onto a hard floor without smashing it?

Answer: A glass won’t smash a hard floor!

18. Family matters

Riddle: There are two fathers and two sons at a table but there are only three people sitting at the table. How is this possible?

Answer: They are a Grandfather, Father and Son.

19. Animal-tastic

Riddle: I have horses, a cat and a trunk. What am I?

Answer: A car. (Horse power, Catalytic converter and a trunk for your bags.)

Hard Riddles: Part 2

20. Numerology

Riddle: When does 11 + 3 = 2?

Answer: on a clock.

21. Lost and found

Riddle: Why is it that when you have lost something, it’s always in the last place you look?

Answer: Because you stop looking when you find it.

22. Don’t Know?

Riddle: What has no beginning, middle or end?

Answer: A doughnut.

23. Light of my life

Riddle: You walk into a dark room. In the room there is only an oil lantern, a Candle and a fireplace. Which do you light first?

Answer: You can’t. You don’t have anything to light them with.

24. Math Genius

Riddle: Which is correct? 15 plus 118 is 134 Or 118 plus 15 is 134?

Answer: Neither are correct. 15 plus 118 is 133.

25. Tools of the trade

Riddle: Where can you find a hammer and an anvil that are too small for human hands to use?

Answer: In the human ear. They are the smallest bones in the body.

26. Life

Riddle: During our life, what are two things we will do but will never remember?

Answer: Breathe our first breath and last breath.

27. Burning bright

Riddle: Which candles burn longer. Church candles or Birthday cake candles?

Answer: Neither. Candles only burn shorter.

28. Shopping

Riddle: When I was going to my local shop I saw a man and his wife and their two children. How many people were going to the shop?

Answer: Only 1 person was going to the shop, me.

29. Heads or tails

Riddle: What loses its head in the morning and gets it back at night?

Answer: A pillow.

30. Around the world

Riddle: Seymour wants to travel around the world. He had only travelled halfway around the world before he had to start travelling back home. Why was this?

Answer: If you travel halfway around the world away from your starting point the next half you start to travel back towards your starting point.

31. Priceless

Really Hard Riddle: What can be given and can be accepted, is worth a great deal but costs nothing yet has no monetary value?

Answer: An apology.

32. Moving on

Tricky Riddle: What can run but never walk?

Answer: Water.

33. Word crazy

Riddle: What word is pronounced the same when you take away four of its five letters?

Riddle: Queue.

34. Monthly Madness

Riddle: Peter Drinks more water in January than in February but the same amount of water in August as in January. Why?

Answer: There are more days in January than February and the same amount of days in January and August.

35. Royal flush

Riddle: In a room there is a king, a queen and two twins but nobody is in the room? How is this?

Answer: They are all beds.

36. Broken

Riddle: What breaks every day but can never be fixed?

Answer: Dawn.

37. An opener

Riddle: What can be opened and closed but no human has ever passed through it?

Answer: A mouth.

38. Expensive item

Riddle: What is the most expensive item that we buy, we own it but we never get to see it.

Answer: A coffin

39. Sisters are doing it for themselves

Riddle: Mary, Anne, Martha and Isobel are all best friends and sisters but each of them is an only child. How is this possible?

Answer: They are all Nuns.

40. Unbreakable

Tough Riddle: I bend but I never break. What am I?

Answer: Light.

Hard Riddles: Part 3

41. Pick up a penguin

Riddle: Why are penguins not afraid of being eaten by polar bears?

Answer: Penguins live at the North pole and Polar bears at the South pole.

42. Liar Liar

Riddle: Sam Spade was telling his friends about his recent stay at the Tropicana hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. He told them he won a thousand dollars shortly before returning to room 420 on the thirteenth floor. His friend Jerry immediately knew that Sam was lying about going to Vegas and staying at the Tropicana. How did Jerry know that Sam was lying?

Answer: The Tropicana Casino and hotel doesn’t have a 13th floor as the number 13 is thought to be unlucky and no hotels have room 420 as the numbers get stolen because of its connection to Cannabis. Sam was indeed lying.

43. Your numbers up

Riddle: Which is the only number that when divided by itself does not equal 1?

Answer: Zero. Every number apart from 0 equals 1 when divided by itself.

44. Con Artist

Riddle: A widow received a phone call from a stranger saying that her recently deceased husband owed the caller thousands of dollars in unpaid bills for photographs of naked women and if she didn’t pay him the money he would go to the newspapers and expose her dead husband to shame. The widow immediately told the caller that she wouldn’t pay him the money as she knew he was lying. Why was the widow so confident that the man was trying to extort money and was a liar?

Answer: Her deceased husband had been blind from birth and so wouldn’t have ordered pictures of naked women.

45. Murderous intent

Riddle: A rich woman was murdered on Christmas day at her mansion in London. The police interviewed her husband and the staff at her mansion. They all gave alibis. Her husband was watching The Queen’s speech on TV, The cook was preparing the Christmas dinner, The Butler was helping the maid clean the dining room and the Gardener was cutting the grass in the back garden. The police arrested and charged the Gardener with murder. How did the police Detective know The Gardener killed her?

Answer: Grass doesn’t grow in the wintertime so doesn’t need cutting.

46. Twin trouble

Riddle: Mario and Mark are twins. They were born 10 minutes apart. Mario is the eldest and has had 20 birthdays. Mark is the younger but has only had 5 birthdays? Why?

Answer: Mario was born at 11.55 on February 28th in a leap year and Mark was born at 12.05 on February 29th on a leap day so Mark has only had 5 Birthdays.

47. Lions, Tigers and Bears

Riddle: Although Lions are feared and fierce creatures, they never attack Tigers or bears. Why is this?

Answer: Lions are native to Africa and there are no Tigers or Bear species in Africa.

48. Changes

Tough Riddle: What is something that you have but you can’t touch, you can change whenever you want and you use everyday but have never seen me. What am I?

Answer: Your mind.

49. More or less

Riddle: The more you see of me, the less you can see. I visit you everyday. What am I?

Answer: Darkness.

50. Riddled full of holes

Tricky Riddle: I am full of holes but I am great at holding water. What am I?

Answer: A Sponge.

51. Sticky not sticky

Riddle: I stick so strongly, yet I am not sticky in the slightest. What am I?

Answer: A magnet.

52. Open and closed

Riddle: Why can I go through a door closed but not go through a door open?

Answer: Because I’m an umbrella.

53. Ice Ice Baby

Riddle: You take 6 cubes of ice from the freezer. Remove 2 and add 1. You wait half an hour and put them back in the freezer. How many Ice cubes do you have now?

Answer: You have 1 Ice cube as they will have melted and refrozen as 1.

54. Gone In 60 Seconds

Riddle: Imagine that you are locked in a pitch black room with no windows or doors. You can’t see, hear or smell anything. You have 60 seconds to escape the room. How do you escape from the room?

Answer: Stop imagining you are in the room!

55. Lost in the forest

Riddle: You find yourself lost in a vast forest with no compass, no cell phone in the middle of the day. You must return to the safety of the campsite and your friends before nightfall and the wild animals descend. Your camp is in the North of the vast forest. How do you determine which way is North?

Answer: If you look at the tree trunks, the side of the tree with moss growing is facing North as Moss grows facing North.

56. Riddle O’clock

Riddle: There is an old saying that goes, ‘Even a stopped clock is right twice a day’! What type of clock is right only once a day?

Answer: A digital clock as the 24 hour clock shows time as 00:00 to 23:59

57. Spelling Bee

Riddle: Which word in English is spelled backwards?

Answer: Backwards.

58. Strange Creatures

Riddle: What is at the head of a Llama and at the tail of a seagull?

Answer: Double L.

59. Little Jimmy goes home

Riddle: Little Jimmy was on an island in the lake outside his house. He heard his mother calling him. Little Jimmy crosses the lake immediately without getting wet and without having a boat or using a bridge. How did Little Jimmy do it?

Answer: He flew. Little Jimmy is a bird.

60. Big and tall

Super Hard Riddle: What can be the same size as the world’s tallest person but weighs nothing?

Answer: The world’s tallest person’s shadow.

Popular But Difficult Riddles

— Hard Riddles 2024

Riddle: A woman shoots her husband, then holds him underwater for five minutes. Next, she hangs him. Right after, they enjoy a lovely dinner. Explain.

Answer: She took a photo of him and developed it in the darkroom.

Riddle: What goes up and never comes down?

Answer: Your age will rise with the years, but sadly, it will never go down.

Riddle: What gets bigger when more is taken away?

Answer: Hole.

Riddle: The more you take the more you leave behind. What am I?

Answer: Footstep

Riddle: What has to be broken before you can use it?

Answer:  An Egg.

Riddle: What is always coming but never arrives?

Answer: Tomorrow.

Riddle: What gets wetter the more it dries?

Answer: Towel.

Riddle: What has one eye but cannot see?

Answer: Needle.

Riddle: Who makes it, has no need of it. Who buys it, has no use for it. Who uses it can neither see nor feel it. What is it?

Answer: A coffin.

Riddle: Poor people have it. Rich people need it. If you eat it you die. What is it?

Answer: Nothing.

Riddle: What has a neck but no head?

Answer: A shirt.

Riddle: What is easy to get into but hard to get out of?

Answer: Trouble.

Riddle: I have cities, but no houses. I have mountains, but no trees. Water, But no Fish. What Am I?

Answer: A map.

Riddle: What can you catch, but not throw?

Answer: Cold.

Riddle: Everyone has it and no one can lose it, what is it?

Answer: Shadow.

Riddle: If you have it you don’t share it. If you share it you don’t have it. What is it?

Answer: Secret.

Riddle: Give me food, and I will live. Give me water, and I will die. What am I?

Answer: Fire.

Riddle: As I was walking across the London Bridge, I met a man who drew his hat and drew his cane, and in this riddle, I said his name. What is it?

Riddle: Andrew.

Riddle: What’s black and white and red all over?

Answer: Newspaper.

Riddle: When is a door not a door?

Answer: When it is ajar.

Riddle: People buy me to eat but never eat me what am I?

Answer: Plates and cutlery.

Riddle: What has no beginning end or middle?

Answer: A donut.

Riddle: I have keys but no locks. What am I?

Answer: keyboard.

Riddle: What two words, added together, contain the most letters?

Answer: Post office.

Riddle: What has a bottom at the top?

Answer: Your legs.

We hope you enjoyed your journey through Riddle-Ville. So to sign off, Riddle me this: What waves but never says goodbye? The Ocean!

More Riddles

55 Riddles for Teens // 136 Riddles for Adults // 55 Animal Riddles
75 Short Riddles // 40 Emoji Riddles // 172 Riddles for Kids
154 Trick Questions // 154 Funny Riddles // 73 Brain Teasers
82 Hard Riddles // 73 Dirty Riddles // 73 What Am I Riddles // 37 Egg Riddles

Sean Turner